If you are planning to travel in the new year 2023 then Istanbul is a city you should not miss it is a beautiful and mysterious city. This city is really the intersection of two continents, Eurasia, and has both the ancient features of Europe and the mystery of Asia.
Istanbul, the heart of Turkey, is a land with a long cultural history. Surely you will find it difficult to refuse when you have the opportunity to visit this city. To prepare for your trip in advance, we will recommend the best places to visit Instanbul Turkey.
Where is Istanbul?
Istanbul is the only city in the world located between two continents: Asia and Europe. At the same time, this is also the largest city, as well as the economic, cultural and historical center of Turkey, the heart of the old turkey department. With more than 2,600 years of history, Istanbul has many churches, mosques and many fascinating attractions. In particular, the historic neighborhood of Istanbul has been recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage. Istanbul is one of the interesting and attractive places that you cannot ignore when traveling to Turkey.
Best time to visit Istanbul Turkey
- Around from April to May and September to October ie in autumn and spring, is the best time to travel to Istanbul.
- Or pay attention if you choose to travel to Istanbul in October because this is the Kurban Bayramı holiday of Islam (from November 27 to December 1), so the time will change.
- From July to August, the weather is quite wet and hot, so people often travel in the western areas or the beaches.
Transportation in Istanbul Turkey
Interprovincial means of transport :
Transportation in the city Istanbul Turkey :
When flying to Istanbul, you will usually land at New Istanbul Airport (IST) located northeast of Istanbul and about 50km from the city. There is currently no Metro line connecting the airport and downtown, but you have a few other ways such as Shuttle bus, taxi or self-driving car. You can convert Euro to Turkish TL, the usual exchange rate is 1 EUR ~ 10 TL.
IETT Municipal Public Buses: This bus has 7 lines running to different points in the city center. The total fare is 2 tiket/way: 3.50 TL x 2 = 7.00 TL.
Buses of HAVAIST Airport Shuttles/Buses: this company runs a fixed route with 50 stops in the city, including 9 lines connecting the airport. Tickets purchased can only be paid with IstanbulKart or a credit card on the airline’s app. Fares depend on each leg, ranging from 20-40TL/way.
Where to stay in Instanbul Turkey
The city of Istanbul is very large and stretches across 2 continents. But tourists will only stay around the Sultanahmet and Taksim area.
Sultanahmet : The old town where the city’s famous tourist attractions are concentrated such as Sultanahmet Camii, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace…
If you want to feel the timeless beauty of Istanbul, you should book a room here. Get up early to walk around so you can feel the silence of each street.
Some hotels in Sultanahmet area: Sirkeci Park Hotel, Istiklal Terrace Hotel, Sunlife Oldcity, Hotel Megaron, Aldem Hotel.
Taksim : Considered the heart of Istanbul with its square and bustling pedestrian street. Moreover, this is also the main hub of all traffic routes in the city. You can easily find cheap buses to the airport from here. However, the security of this area in my opinion is not very good.
Some hotels in Taksim area: Santa Ottoman Hotel, The Legend Platine Suites, Mirrors Hotel, Jakaranda Hotel, Gravis Suites Taksim.
What to eat in Istanbul
Galata Fish Bread
Before going to Turkey, I also read reviews and had many different compliments and criticisms about this fish bread, but when I came to Istanbul, it may be because I was lucky to choose the right restaurant, so the food was extremely delicious and I loved the experience. terrible. The restaurant we eat at is Derya Kafeterya and the price is 15 TRY (~ 40,000 VND) for 1 serving of fish cakes.
Turkish Delight (Lokum)
One of the most popular sweets in the country, it can be found in any city, on trolleys and in markets. This is one of the oldest candies in the world. The shop we often visit is Mado. This is a very famous chain store so you can easily find it anywhere. The beautiful cake looks back to Macron when he came to Paris.
Cheating Ice cream
Kind of like you will pay to be cheated. The ice cream seller will do all sorts of things, playing around so that you can’t get the ice cream. And it will only stop when you are bored and don’t bother to talk. . The ice cream taste is quite strange and chewy, there are also many different flavors for you to choose from such as vanilla, green tea…
Price: 30 TRY (~ 80,000 VND). The price is a bit high but you should definitely try it because the feeling of being cheated is quite good.
Necessary items when traveling to Istanbul
- Passport: If you don’t have one, the trip won’t be possible
- Clothes, sports shoes, hats are items that are never lacking. Depending on the time and season you go to bring clothes to suit the weather. Regarding shoes, you should bring sports shoes to facilitate movement.
- Medical supplies: in order to avoid unsuitable conditions in Istanbul that should not happen during the trip, you need to bring some common and common medicines such as: flu, headache, stomach pain medicine, reliever. pain,…
- Food: If you want your trip to be as economical as possible, bring cup noodles and dry food.
- Phone, battery charger, toothbrush, shampoo, towel, medicine, map, camera….
- Should bring a small personal computer to facilitate calculations when shopping or changing money.
- Shawls : Women entering religious places are not allowed to show their hair. The ladies should prepare some beautiful towels in advance. At tourist sites, there is a service to lend towels, but these towels are usually light green, so they don’t look good on photos.
Note:
Important documents such as passports, cash, jewelry and other valuables should be carried with you or deposited in a safe at the hotel reception.
Let’s discover top 10 best places to visit Istanbul Turkey for new year 2023
1. Bosphorus Strait
This is the narrowest strait in the world with a width of only about 700m – 3400m and was voted by Business Insider magazine as one of the 50 places to visit once in a lifetime.
2. Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque is the largest mosque in Turkey and also the symbol of the city of Istanbul. The reason for the name Green Cathedral is because the church is paved with 20000 blue glazed bricks. The church is open to tourists free of charge, but the church remains a sanctuary of worship.
Therefore, before entering the mosque, everyone will have to take off their shoes, only the women will have to wear a headscarf.
3. Hagia Sophia Church
Used to be the largest Orthodox church in the world for 1000 years. After being invaded by the Ottoman Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. Hagia Sophia is currently open 24/7 and admission is free to all visitors. Just like the Blue Mosque, when entering the mosque, you need to pay attention to take off your shoes and women need to wear a headscarf.
4. Basilica Cistern – The sunken palace
Basilica Cistern is known by various names such as the Underground Palace or the Sunken Palace. In fact, this is an underground water tank system that provides clean water for the people of Istanbul. Most notable are the upside-down Medusa demon heads located inside Basicila Cistern.
5. Ortakoy Mosque
It is both a symbol of the Ortaköy district and also known as the “jewel” of the Bosphorus. The church was built by the strait and is located at the foot of the Bosphorus bridge.
6. Balat – Colorful Old Town
The name Balat was originally adapted from the Greek word “palation” which means “splendid palace”. The houses in Balat are built with traditional architecture, simple but extremely beautiful and colorful.
7. Topkapi Palace – A place to keep the memory of the glorious Ottoman dynasty
Topkapi Palace, located near the Bosphorus, is considered a witness to the dreams and tears of the Ottoman Empire. Topkapi is like a miniature city, where the kings of the Ottoman Empire lived for 400 years.
8. Grand Bazaar
Grand Bazaar is the oldest market in Turkey as well as in the world. It was built in 1455 of the 15th century and this name in Turkish means indoor market, just like the unique architecture of this market.
9. Taksim Town
Contrary to the timeless beauty of the old quarters above, Taksim area brings a breath of modern life. When night falls, Taksim becomes very crowded with lots of shops and bars.
10. Galata Tower
Galata Tower is one of the prominent tourist attractions in the city of Istanbul and is also one of the typical symbols of this city. The tower was built in the Middle Ages to protect the safety of the city of Istanbul.
Notes when traveling to Istanbul
It is better to buy a sim at the airport because it is much more convenient and economical
Buy a Turkish sim at the airport: Price 250 TRY (~ 785,000 VND), if you go with 2 people, you can share the network with each other. There are two popular communication companies in Turkey that you can choose from: TurkCell and Turk Telecom. We bought a Turkcell sim that can call and text freely, with 25 GB of data.
Should choose destination is Istanbul Ataturk airport
Istanbul Ataturk Airport is still in the process of being completed, but it is expected that by 2025, after completion, it will become the largest airport in the world. You can choose a destination or a flight back from this airport to take advantage of the large space with unique architecture and the estimated total construction cost of up to 12 billion dollars.
Cash exchange (Turkish Lira) for use in Istanbul
You can use international payment cards to pay at some supermarkets or big restaurants, but most of Istanbul still uses cash (including taxis), so it’s best to change money. front panel for ease of use. You can also exchange at the airport at international currency converter counters.
Beware of scam taxi drivers / going around to increase fares
Taxis when traveling to Istanbul mostly run based on speedometers. The fixed list price is 4 TRY (~ 11,000 VND) for the starting point and 2.5 TRY (~ 6,900 VND) per km traveled. Short trips will charge a minimum of 10 TRY (~ 27,500 VND). However, the most common scam is the situation of transporting passengers around to increase the fare. We were once cheated by a taxi driver by swapping the bill we gave (200 TRY) into a 20 TRY bill and said we still underpaid and asked for more (taxi fare was 50 TRY).
Experience is to always take a taxi company (yellow car) and before getting in the car remember to take a photo of the license plate, and save the phone number of the switchboard to contact immediately when needed. At the same time, open Google Map to check the trip itinerary to detect immediately when the driver deliberately drives you around.
We are also fortunate to have a local friend, so whenever we take a taxi and see signs that the driver intentionally lost the way, we will call her to demand justice immediately. In the above money-swapping case, after seeing us taking pictures and saying that we would report to the operator, the driver automatically returned to pay and said it was a mistake (?!).
Let’s bargain!!
If you go shopping in Istanbul, especially in markets like the Grand Bazaar, don’t forget to bargain because if you have good negotiation skills, you can also get a good discount.
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Above is a list of the top 10 best places to visit Instanbul Turkey, and the most detailed Instanbul travel guide. Hope it is useful for your new year trip.
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